Posts Tagged ‘ZOA’

It’s wrong for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to have failed to condemn as blatant anti-Semitism Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA)’s “termites” label for Jews living in Judea/Samaria. It’s also wrong for the ADL to have accepted Johnson’s phony apology “tweet.” Congressman Johnson merely tweeted: “Poor choice of words – apologies for offense. Point is settlement activity continues slowly undermine 2-state solution.”

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is not alone in feeling this way.

Prominent Las Angeles Rabbi David Wolpe wrote: “That is not an apology. ‘I am sorry I said something stupid and anti-Semitic’—that would have been a fitting apology. These are not trivial issues. . . . To call Jews ‘termites’ is base and vile.” (Rabbi Wolpe: There Is No Excuse for Anti-Semitic Smears, Time Magazine, July 26, 2016)

Commentary editor John Podhoretz tweeted about ADL’s inadequate tweet: “How about using the term “anti-Semitic,” you cowards? He compared Jews to TERMITES, for f –k’s sake.”

In fact, the “settlements” comprise only 2% of Judea/Samaria, and there has been virtually no building in Judea/Samaria during the past two years. Further, 99% of Palestinian Arabs live in areas governed by Palestinians.

Congressman Johnson’s deplorable comments are also reminiscent of the communities, clubs, beaches and hotels in the U.S. in past decades that posted signs saying “No Dogs, No Colored, No Jews, No Irish.” As a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressman Johnson should be particularly sensitive to the inappropriateness of leveling epithets against religious and ethnic groups, including Jews.

Can you imagine the outrage if a congressperson called blacks living in certain communities “termites”? There would be a demand for the resignation of any congressman who said blacks are like termites ruining white neighborhoods and harming their peaceful atmosphere. Saying that Jews shouldn’t live in Judea/Samaria because Arabs don’t want Jews there is as racist as saying that blacks shouldn’t live in white suburbs because some whites may not want blacks living there.

ADL’s Failure to Condemn The Anti-Israel BDS Forum: The ADL also disgracefully failed to condemn Congressman Johnson’s involvement in the anti-Semitic forum where the Congressman referred to Jews as “termites.” The Congressman was speaking at a side event to the Democratic National Convention sponsored by the “U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.” This notorious anti-Semitic organization calls Israel’s rebirth in 1948 a “catastrophe” and promotes anti-Semitic, anti-Israel boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) aimed at destroying the State of Israel.

Anti-Israel boycotts are blatant anti-Semitic discrimination, harm both Jews and Arabs, and violate the Oslo accords signed by the PLO/PA. Congressman Johnson should apologize for speaking on behalf of an anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, pro-BDS organization.

ADL’s Failure to Condemn Cong. Johnson’s Other Egregious Statements: The ADL also failed to condemn Congressman Johnson’s other egregious statements. During his speech, Johnson also improperly condemned Israel for “the building of walls and the building of check points that restrict movement of Palestinians.”

Johnson omitted the key fact that Israel built the security fence and checkpoints out of necessity – to stop Palestinian-Arab terrorist attacks, after Palestinian-Arab terrorists murdered approximately 2,000 innocent Jews and wounded almost 10,000 innocent Jews in suicide bombings in pizza parlors, on buses and at Passover Seders during the Second Intifada.

Does Congressman Johnson also condemn the checkpoints at the Congressional office building that assure his personal safety? If not, he should also apologize for his remarks about the security fence and checkpoints that Israel had to build solely to stop terrorist attacks.

ADL’s Failed to Address Congressman Johnson’s Denials: ADL also failed to address the congressman’s false denials of his “termites” label for Jews. Congressman Johnson falsely told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution that he did not call Jewish Israelis termites, and that he did not intend to insult or speak derogatorily of the Israelis or the Jewish people, and that instead, his termite metaphor was intended to refer to the “corrosive settlement process.” In fact, the congressman did analogize Jews to termites, when he spoke of termites “getting into” and eating up residences. The congressman was referring to Jews who are living in (“getting into”) their homes in Judea/Samaria.

(Congressman Johnson’s said: “There has been a steady [stream], almost like termites can get into a residence and eat before you know that you’ve been eaten up and you fall in on yourself, there has been settlement activity that has marched forward with impunity and at an ever increasing rate to the point where it has become alarming.”)

Moreover, “settlements” have nothing to do with a lack of peace. The causes of the lack of peace are Palestinian-Arab terrorism and the Palestinian Arab leaders’ continuing incitement of Jew hatred, payments to Palestinian-Arab terrorists for murdering Jews, and the unrelenting genocidal goal of destroying Israel. The Palestinian-Arab leadership repeatedly rejected generous proposals for a state because those proposals would have required them to end their goal of destroying Israel.

The ADL does not speak for us, or for other Jews and pro-Israel groups and individuals. We do not appreciate Congressman Johnson’s offensive “clarification.”

Congressman Johnson owes Israel and the Jewish people a full and sincere apology for speaking on behalf of an organization that promotes anti-Israel boycotts and Israel’s destruction, and for calling Jews living in Judea/Samaria “termites.”

ZOA Florida participated in the IAC Celebrate Israel Festival on Sunday, May 22. Participants engaged in Zionist trivia games and learned about the remarkable state of Israel and the global movement that made its resurgence possible.

ZOA Florida attended the recent Capitol Hill Mission Day in Washington. The organization brought one of its largest groups to the event.

The attendees heard from dozens of lawmakers and met with key senators and representatives or their aides.

ZOA Florida urged lawmakers to co-sign the Iran Ballistic Missile Sanctions Act of 2016 (S. 2725 and H.R. 4815) and increased sanctions legislation with S.2726 and H.R. 4992. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is a co-signer of both. They also advocated for withholding funding to the Palestinian Authority so long as incitement and terrorism continue and urged them to block any U N Security Council resolutions that would be dangerous for Israel, especially any actions that grants Palestinian Arabs a state unilaterally.

The Zionist Organization of America has called upon President Barack Obama to publicly condemn Palestinian Authority’s Mahmoud Abbas’ praise for the terrorist attack in Jaffa yesterday, which claimed the life of Taylor Force, an American citizen.

Force, a West Point graduate, a U.S. army veteran of tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, and an MBA student at Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Management, was on a visit to Israel to study Israeli entrepreneurship when he was killed by a Palestinian terrorist, Bashar Masalha, who embarked on a stabbing rampage in which 12 other people were wounded.

Vice-President Joseph Biden, who is on a visit to Israel and was meeting former Israeli President Shimon Peres nearby, and whose wife and grandchildren were dining quite close to the scene of the attack, condemned “the kind of violence we saw yesterday, the failure to condemn it, the rhetoric that incites that violence, the retribution that it generates, has to stop.”

Vice-President Biden did not identify Mahmoud Abbas by name for this failure, so we call upon President Barack Obama to do so.

Far from condemning the attack, Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority celebrated the murderous rampage of Bashar Masalha. Official PA TV called the victims, including the dead American citizen, “settlers,” a category of people which the PA claims international law gives them a right to murder, and called Masalha, who was killed during his rampage, a “shahid” .

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “The ZOA mourns the death of Taylor Force and send condolences to his family as well as the families of the 12 other wounded victims of this murderous terrorist rampage.

“We note that Vice-President Biden rightly condemned, not only the murderous terrorism but, just as importantly, the failure to condemn this murderous terrorism.

“That failure is perpetually on display around the world and not least in Mahmoud Abbas’ PA, Israel’s supposed moderate peace partner.

“Vice-President Biden did not identify Mahmoud Abbas by name for this failure, so we call upon President Barack Obama to do so.

“It should be clear the Mahmoud Abbas, not only fails to condemn outright, vicious terrorism but also glorifies the murderer’s lethal rampage, and by doing so, on this and countless other occasions, he helps to foster a climate of incitement to murder and hatred, and is no peace partner.

“When will President Obama finally admit this and put an end to American taxpayer aid to the PA, which is financing a terror-promoting regime, and its media that daily broadcasts this kind of vicious incitement which VP Biden so rightly condemned?”

New York City Council’s 14-member Jewish Caucus is drafting a new law to fight the anti-Semitism permeating the city university’s campuses.

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) last week called on officials to deal with the rise in the number of hate incidents on City University of New York (CUNY) campuses.

The ZOA last week sent a letter to CUNY demanding a probe into ‘Students for Justice in Palestine,’ which it said has engaged in “anti-Semitic and violence-inciting conduct” against Jewish students, the NY Post reported.

The NYC Council Jewish Caucus also sent a letter to CUNY Chancellor James Milliken “demand[ing] to know what comprehensive actions” and, saying it “insist[s] the chancellor inform Council members of CUNY policies for reporting hate-based campus incidents to the NYPD – and if no system exists, set one up immediately.”

Caucus chair and Council member Mark Levine (D-Manhattan) told The Post,“We’re not convinced that the university is adequately tracking what is clearly a pattern of bigotry.”

The university’s chancellor ordered an independent probe into the bias claims, days later. But CUNY has done little else in response, other than issue a statement.

“Our campus-based public safety officers are trained to identify possible hate crime incidents. They refer these incidents to and work closely with the [NYPD],” the statement said.

“Further investigation may lead the police to designate an incident as a hate crime. We report any such designations publicly to a federal registry as all colleges and universities are required to do.”

The City Council Jewish Caucus is now drafting legislation to require CUNY (City University of New York) to report all bias incidents to the Council.

Brooklyn Council member Chaim Deutsch is slated to be lead sponsor on legislation.

Ban ki-Moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, spoke at New York’s Park East Synagogue over Shabbat. The United Nations is located in New York City, so it would not be such a surprise to have the UN Secretary General speak at a New York City shul, ordinarily. But these are not ordinary times.

Recently Ban has spoken and written publicly in ways, described by many, as justifying Palestinian Arab terrorism against Jews.

So when it was revealed that the Secretary General was going to be speaking at the Park East Synagogue to commemorate the United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Shabbat on Feb. 6, pro-Israel stalwarts decided to make sure Ban knew how they felt.

In advance of Ban’s visit, a member of the synagogue sent out a public message, expressing his disgust. Julius Weil tweeted: “Let’s make this a Moonless Shabbat.” He included:

If you’ve read the newspapers, you know there’s a global war on Israel and Jews. The U.N. is the epicenter of this anti-Jewish push. While we still have clout in the U.S. we must stand up and voice or [sic] anger. To invite the Secretary-General to speak in a house of God while he ignores condemning Palestnian acts of terror committed on a daily basis against innocent Israelis is just wrong. To do it under the pretext of honoring the memory of the six million who perished at the hands of the Nazis makes a mockery of their deaths.

There were more who had had enough.

There were pro-Israel supporters handing out flyers outside they shul. The ZOA leaflets that were being distributed included the following information:

On January 26, 2016, United Nations Sec’y-General Ban Ki-moon justified and legitimized terrorism against Jews, by publicly telling the Security Council: “It is human nature to react to occupation,” and that “Palestinians” are driven by “frustration” and “despair,” and by blaming “settlements” (Jewish communities on 2% of Judea/Samaria) for anti-Jewish terror.

Ban Ki-moon showed that he is morally bankrupt when he justified the inhumane Palestinian Arab terrorists who murdered 30 innocent Israeli Jews and injured almost 300 innocent Israeli Jews in stabbing, car-ramming and shooting attacks during the past four months in an ongoing terror wave. These vicious Arab terrorists even stabbed a Jewish pregnant woman and stabbed to death a Jewish mother of six children while she tried to protect her children.

Jews are not “occupiers” of our own land. And Arab terror against Jews existed long before Israel recaptured Judea/Samaria from illegal Jordanian occupation during a defensive war.

By making excuses for murdering Jews, Ban Ki-moon violated his duty to eradicate terror.

There were also pro-Israel supporters handing out flyers inside the shul, some stationed in the women’s section and others in the men’s section of the shul.

Some of the groups handing out the flyers were Americans for a Safe Israel, and the ZOA. There were also members of the Jewish Rapid Response Coalition.

One activist, Hillary Barr, of Mothers Against Terrorism, said she was approached by “security” as she was giving out her flyers, and told that what she was doing was a security risk.

Barr said, “I explained that in America you can hand out fliers at shuls,” and she would not turn hers over. She said she told him to “just relax.”

Rabbi Arthur Schneier, the senior rabbi of the shul, introduced various holocaust survivors – he is also a holocaust survivor – and ended his speech with “we must not be silent.”

Barr said she “took the ‘we must not be silent’ as a direct message” to her. Then Rabbi Schneier introduced Ban ki-Moon. When Ban approached the podium, Barr stood up and said:

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has praised Congressmen for demanding what the State Dept. rejected.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, running for the Republican party nomination for president, signed up 31 other Congressmen, as reported here last week, to write a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry demanding that the Obama Defense Minister close the PLO offices in Washington.

The Congressmen argued:

The United States government has an obligation to publicly denounce the PLO’s actions and should immediately revoke its waiver.

Allowing the PLO to maintain an office in Washington, D.C. provides no benefit to the United States or the peace process. Closing the PLO office in Washington, D.C. would send a clear statement that the kind of incitement to violence perpetrated by the PLO and its leaders will not be tolerated.

The State Dept. rejected the demand. The ZOA came to the Congressmen’s defense because “Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) has never fulfilled its obligations under the Oslo Accords to outlaw terrorist groups, extradite terrorists, confiscate illegal weaponry and end the incitement to hatred and murder in the PA-controlled, media, mosques, schools and youth camps that fuels the conflict.”

The ZOA added:

The PA even gives pensions to families of Jew-killing terrorists. And the larger the number of Jews murdered-the larger the pension. President Obama and Secretary Kerry say nothing about any of these PA terrorist actions. The PA should be placed on the US list of terrorist entities, and should not have an office in our Capital.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein added, “Put quite simply, the PLO does not merit the diplomatic immunity and the status that comes with it. President Obama gave Abbas’ PA this upgrade despite the fact that the PA has not altered its behavior, even while receiving annually hundreds of millions of dollars in US tax-payer funded aid.

Below are the names of the Congressmen, all of them Republicans, who signed the letter: